Battlefield Heroes in Open Beta/Released

There are conflicting reports on gaming websites this morning which are simultaneously claiming that Battlefield Heroes is in open beta and that it has been released, but either way, it is available for public consumption. I played it for a solid month awhile ago, and had a great time playing it. It is a very good casual game for players new to the FPS genre or just looking for a way to relax from their pulse pumping games of Counterstrike or Team Fortress 2.

Battlefield Heroes is also a great game to play with your friends if you can find your way onto the same server. It's hard to get too wound up playing the game, and it is alot of fun being in the same tank or plane at the same time as someone you know. More than that, since the game is free, it's a great way to play a FPS with someone you know that doesn't have a top of the line computer or isn't willing to drop $50 on Call of Duty or Halo.

I'll probably be playing the game a little bit this weekend, just to see what has changed. Go download and try it today!

Magic: the Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers Review

Let me preface this review by saying that since it is a timely review, I'm not going to bother to evaluate this game in a long term sense. This review focuses mainly on whether or not you should buy this game. If you want to save yourself some time, I've copied and pasted the final three sentences of the review here for your convenience:

Although in several areas it can disappoint, overall it is impossible to argue with the value proposition of Duels of the Planeswalkers. Whether you are new to the game, playing for the first time in five years, or already play in local FNMs or PTQs, if you own an Xbox 360 there is no reason you shouldn't also own this game.

This week, I was sick as a dog, which gave me a good opportunity to play Stainless Games' new Xbox Live Arcade game Magic: the Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers. Right now, the game costs 800 MS Points, which is the equivalent of $10. At that price point, this is a fantastic game that should be in every gamer's collection. This is especially true if you also play Magic: the Gathering in paper, since you get a free $15 card (my friend's estimation of the value, not mine) with purchase.

Singleplayer Campaign

The singleplayer campaign for this game is pretty straightforward: challenge each of the decks to two duels and beat them over the course of the campaign. You will be playing against the AI, which is reasonable but nowhere near perfect. After each win, you will get a card to add to your deck. The confusing decision that the designers made here is that they allow you to grind victories against the same AI-controlled opponent over and over again. While you have to beat all of the opponents in the ladder in order to unlock all the decks, once you have unlocked all of the decks you can just play the same easy-as-pie opponent over and over again, depending on which opponent your deck is strongest against. Although I did not beat the entire campaign with all of the decks, I did beat all of the opponents with the Elf, Jund, and mono-green decks, which were the only three I attempted it with.

AI

The AI is probably one of the poorer parts of the game, overall. It is difficult for me to criticize it entirely, since I'm sure it is very substantial. It does make good decisions most of the time. However, there are many areas it could definitely improve:

1. Mulligans: I'm not sure that it actually takes mulligans. I've seen it missing its second turn land drop before. It may take mulligans, but I've never seen it go to 6.
   
2. Attacking, causing it to be dead on board: I can't tell you how many times I have three guys in play, and the AI has three guys in play with a few meager points of life left, but one of them is phantom warrior. In this case, regardless of my life total, or his, he will swing with it. In many of these circumstances, the AI literally causes him to be dead on the board, regardless of any tricks I may be holding. It seems like there should have been a line or two of code telling it not to attack if the extra creature that gets through deals lethal damage.
3. While getting in for an extra 3 with giant growth is nice, its much better to 2 for 1 with it by making your attacking or defending creature 2/2 a 5/5, which is bigger than the other guy's 4/4, thus making him down a card while you are up the creature (which you would have normally lost) or the damage (4 points of life ~1 card) and down the card in hand. 2 for 1.

Magic: the Puzzling

Another play mode of the game is Magic: the Puzzling. This gameplay variant is interesting and definitely showcases some of Magic's potential. Unfortunately, certain considerations (like card drawing) convinced Wizards and/or Stainless games that all of these puzzles should be a "can you find a way to win this turn, after drawing your card" question, which to me reduced their complexity. A few of them took me a couple tries, but most were fairly easy. I beat them all in a single sitting. I wish that I had earned a deck unlock or something more substantial than simple achievement points doing this, though. Overall, this was a quick addition to the game that didn't add any long-term value to me.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer modes are, in my opinion, the highlight of the experience. As of the second night after release, there were already a fair number of people playing the game online, although actually joining a game is a bit finicky (this may change as more people begin to play online). There are several multiplayer modes available:

• Coop campaign (not online)
• 1v1
  
• 3 player FFA
• 4 player FFA
• 2v2 2 Headed Giant

One of the reasons that the multiplayer stands out as the game's best mode is simply because it feels like the Magic I know. I'm the kind of guy that would rather win big occasionally than win consistently and multiplayer is, as a result, one of the formats that my playstyle is particularly suited for. The use of headsets also makes multiplayer stand out, because it gives you that sitting around a table feeling that not prior Magic virtual game has done before. It also fits better with the cards, which tend to be on the not constructed playable side of things (i.e. you would never see most of these cards at a PTQ in paper Magic). My favorite mode, specifically is probably the 2v2 2 headed giant mode, which is a nice combination of teamwork and slow paced play (yes you get to see both player's hands, so you can help your partner play).

Coop Campaign

The Coop campaign is also awesome, because it's a great way to get your friend to play with you without having to worry about them being intimidated by your prior experience with Magic. While you can't play it online (to my knowledge), a friend and I played through most of it and it is quite a bit of fun. The elf deck is absurd in this mode, btw. One interesting thing to note is that you can unlock cards for decks in the Coop campaign, so you can use this to approximately double your unlock rate vs. single player play.

Deck Construction/Balance Issues

Deck construction in this game is not what you would expect given that you are playing Magic: the Gathering. While in the paper game, you have almost complete control over everything you play, in this game each deck has a core deck which you can unlock additional cards for, and then you may choose which of those unlocked cards you wish to play. Since most of the decks' unlocked cards are of the bomb variety, you end up playing almost all of them. The notable exceptions, however, are the "tooth" cards which basically all give you an additional point of life whenever someone plays a spell of a specified color. While these cards are alright in multiplayer (particularly 4 player FFA), in singleplayer or 2v2 they're atrocious and should almost never be played.

My theory for these deck restrictions is this: Stainless wanted to delicately control the balance of the metagame, and the best way to do that is to have all of the decks' potential under control. Because there are a couple of bad/undesirable cards in most of the decks, it is basically impossible to modify the decks into unstoppable, efficient killing machines. If everyone could take the elvish warriors from the elf deck and put them into the green deck in the grizzly bears slot, or move the grizzly bears into the dragon fodder slot in the Jund deck, you could risk improving one deck too much and throw off the balance of the metagame.

However, if this was the reason, or even if it wasn't, Stainless should have done a better job of balancing the metagame. Some decks simply seem to be much better than others, particularly the elf deck, with which a decent draw can destroy almost any deck in the metagame. The blue, black, and red decks barely seem to be in the game at all, and the white deck is basically a FFA only affair, since its bombs are basically Serra Angel, Wrath of God (I'm told, haven't seen it yet), and Mass Calcify. The Naya deck seems to be completely trumped by the green deck, which simply trades some creature efficiency (no 3 mana 5/4) and removal for no mana issues and Overrun.

Expansion Opportunities

The most promising aspect of the game are the expansion opportunities it seems to present down the road. Adding onto this game should be fairly simple: just release a new deck for another 100-200 MS Points. Assuming that enough people download the base game, I'm sure future expansions are in the works. Heck, there's already a deck in the campaign that player's can't unlock yet. (Maybe I need to beat the double Tezzeret decks at the end of the Coop campaign, haven't done that yet).

Overall Impressions

Duels of the Planeswalkers is simply an outstanding value for 800 MS Points. While it's not perfect, it is certainly the most attractive Magic: the Gathering client ever, and gets most of the important aspects of Magic right. It is also easy to learn, beginner friendly and generally a rewarding first Magic experience. While it has its faults, these are more than made up for by the innovative, streamlined experience it provides and the enormous amount of content that you are purchasing for ~$10, even before you include the promo card which is worth the cost of admission alone. If you've always wanted to learn Magic, or even if you simply want to see how much better Magic Online's interface could be, I highly recommend that you take a look at this game. Although in several areas it can disappoint, overall it is impossible to argue with the value proposition of Duels of the Planeswalkers. Whether you are new to the game, playing for the first time in five years, or already play in local FNMs or PTQs, if you own an Xbox 360 there is no reason you shouldn't also own this game.

-Jon

1 vs 100 Beta

So, my roommate and I just started playing the 1vs100 beta tonight. It is darned impressive. I grouped up with my cousin, his sister and a few of his friends and had a blast. The game is completely free to play (I haven't looked into the post-beta but I remember thinking that it was free to play then as well).

Anyways its a great, social game that really pulls players together, even if they aren't in the same room (and they most likely aren't). My roommate got in on the action this evening and we are penciled in to playing it every night for the rest of the week.

I have the history and geography pretty covered, but am atrocious at the pop culture stuff (my roommate helps cover this deficiency somewhat). Regardless, I am still looking for more help. If you are smart and own an Xbox 360 with a gold XBL subscription, definitely hit me up. I might be a little late tomorrow (I work until 7PM, starts at 7:30, boo). Hit me up if you fit the above qualifications. My username is JohnnyJohstneft.

-Jon

Elegance in the Free Realms TCG

So last week I got my first comment on my blog in my Elegant Game Design article. In it, I was discussing elegant games and game systems, and I included the destiny/gem system from the Free Realms TCG in my list.

Now, this inclusion hardly compares to some of the other systems I listed, as my commentor duly noted. The gem system is certainly not as complex as most of the other games that I've included. Yet, I feel it is worth including simply because how the gem system plays into every aspect of the game, is a key consideration in deck construction, and presents interesting design space for future releases of the game, should Topps and SOE ever wish to release additional expansions.

The basic gist of the Free Realms TCG is as follows. Skip the next two paragraphs if you just want to read about the destiny/gem system. The Free Realms TCG is played on a normal game field like Magic: the Gathering but there are only spaces for each player to control three creatures at a time. Players play cards from their hand to their "inventory", which is basically land in Magic, except that it has no color. Any card can be played as a land, but most players play "resources", which are similar to quests in World of Warcraft. These can be played face up as land, and there is generally some benefit which can be harvested from turning them face down. In addition, resource cards generally have good "destiny", which I will get to in a bit.

The cards in your inventory, give you coins every turn that allow you to play more powerful creatures. When you play a creature, you put it in one of the three slots on your side of the board. Once you have spent all of your coins for the turn, or wish to spend no more, the remainder is lost. Then you can attack with your creatures. Creatures either battle the creature in front of them or attack the opponent directly if there is no creature in front of them (so in the above picture, if the red player was attacking, if he chose to attack with the Mauthe Dog it would battle the Chicken Bomber, and if he chose to attack with the Forest Troll Archer it would "hunt", which basically means hit the opponent). When a creature hunts or wins a battle, it scores a card. When a player has scored 12 cards, he or she wins the game.

Destiny draws come into play whenever two creatures are battling. In battles, the attacking creature's attack is compared to the defending creatures defense. Tricks, the game's equivalent of instants, can be used to augment a creature's abilities in battle temporarily, but the attack/defense values are also temporarily increased by destiny draws. In its simplest form, players simply reveal a card from the top of the deck and add the number of gems on the revealed card to the relevant combat stat of their creature. However, the color of the gems also commonly matters, as creatures frequently have text in the form of : Effect; where G is a gem color. In this case, if a required gem is green, and the player reveals a green gem, the effect will trigger. In many cases (such as on the above troll and chicken cards), a proper revealed gem will further increase the attack or defense of the creature. However, there are many creatures who cannot be destroyed if a combination of gems are revealed, who draw a card if the correct gem types are revealed, or untap if the appropriate gem types are revealed.

Therefore, destiny does a number of things for Free Realms:

• It makes battles more exciting and random.
• It enables the designers to put exciting abilities on creatures while simultaneously reinforcing the need to battle with those creatures.
• It allows the designers to add color restrictions to the game without making it difficult for decks that are "off-color" to actually play their cards, since gem color is (at least for now) strictly affiliated with a color in the game.
• It unlocks a great deal of design space without significantly adding to the game's complexity.
  

And, like any other elegant system, it is very easy to understand.

If you haven't tried the Free Realms TCG, and you enjoy examining well-designed game systems, you owe it to yourself to visit the Free Realms virtual world and participate in its Trading Card Game. I do not need to qualify the statement 'The Free Realms TCG is a very well-designed game.'

-Jon

Elegant Game Design

One of the terms we throw around in my office when referring to games is the term "elegant". Now none of us are really game design theorists in the traditional sense, and the word isn't really used much in game reviews, but it is a very fitting description of some games. One of the blogs that I follow is PlayThisThing!. One of the writers there is Greg Costikyan, who contributed a chapter on Europa Universalis (one of my favorite games) to a book entitled Well Played 1.0, edited by Drew Davidson. You can read the book online here, although I recommend you go out and buy a copy for yourself if you really liked it (I did).

One of the other chapters is written on the well-known Advance Wars series of games for Nintendo's mobile Gameboy and DS platforms. Advance Wars is one of the best examples of elegant game design I can think of, and seeing that the chapter on elegant game design in Well Played 1.0 was writted on this game was quite reassuring.

First, let me define my terms. To me, an elegant game or system is one in which there is a great deal of complexity which is slowly introduced to the player or is immediately very understandable. Basically, elegant game designs will almost always be fairly complex but very easy for the player to parse, or are at least structured in such a way that players learn how to use the system fairly easily and are never frustrated by it. Occasionally, I might call an overly complex but not that hard to understand system elegant, but that would be pretty rare. (This might be the case with my Final Fantasy Tactics nomination below.) These systems should also be fairly intuitive to the player, and to some extent, make sense in the real world, or at least in the game world.

Elegant game systems should also be the aspects of games that stand out to the player as being truly interesting and entertaining. By their very nature, they are the most polished aspects of the game.

Of course, the next thing that came to my mind was a mental list of other "elegant" games that I have played over the past few years. I spent most of last week thinking about it, and came up with a pretty good list. I'm actually thinking about taking some of the ideas I've been tossing around and throwing them into a white paper, which would probably help to distill my thoughts even more, but in the mean time I can use this post as a bit of a rough draft. I also did some thinking on some of the mechanics that might fall into the category, so those are also on the list.

Generating the list was surprisingly difficult. It was also a little more eclectic than I imagined. My list of elegant games/game systems, in no particular order:

Advance Wars
Civilization: Revolutions
Braid
Portal
Soul Calibur (I've heard that Street Fighter IV should go here but haven't played it)
Vegas Showdown
Sim City 2000
Item System in Diablo II
Ability/Job System in Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy VII's Materia Systems
Gem System in the Free Realms TCG (No, really, I'm dead serious)
Mana in Magic: the Gathering
World of Warcraft's Talent System

I'm sure I missed a ton of stuff. Please flame me in the forums.

-Jon

Coop, Continued

I have spent a little time recently talking about the resurgence of cooperative play as seen in Left 4 Dead. This weekend, my cousin and I have been playing Gears of War 2 in coop, which I have never done before, and have been having a really fun time. In some sense, Gears of War 2 is a much better coop game than most other FPSs in my opinion, with L4D being the notable exception.

As a single player game, I have never been terribly impressed with either of the Gears games. This is not an insult to Epic, but for some reason the series has never really been exciting for me. Personally, I think the guns lack personality (which is saying something when the assault rifle has a freakin' chainsaw on it, see above for a double chainsaw assisted kill). Basically, all of them feel more or less the same. There is the single-shot rifle which I usually use mid/long range, the aforementioned fully-automatic AR/chainsaw creation, a handful of pistols, and some awkward weapons which are always interesting but a little awkward to use effectively (mortar, et al.).

You also have the Gears themselves, who are big, hulking nasty brutes with hearts of gold. Unfortunately, their body armor slows them to the point that controlling them can sometimes be a pain. While the controls are a far, far cry away from the "please kill me now" control experiences of games like Stormrise, some aspect of the movement system has always put me off. It lacks the clean, smooth, responsive movement of Halo 1-3.

But Gears of War 2 is an absolute blast to play coop. It's still no Left 4 Dead, but it's a great experience working with the teammates, reviving them when they fall, and flanking enemies or racing to get a chainsaw kill/bash the head in of the last baddie who is barely clinging to life. The all-too-common forks in the road also work masterfully in the game, allowing you to cover and set up on your best buddy's flank. This is a much more fun coop experience than Halo 3, which for some reason always felt a little watered down and not very tactical, probably as a result of the level design and the respawn system.

The Xbox Live system, of course, really makes the magic happen, as you get about two-thirds the benefit of having your ally right there with you, but don't have to split off any precious screen real estate.

I haven't really gotten into horde mode much yet, but our experience with it has been very positive thusfar, and I'm looking forward to trying it some more in the next few weeks.

-Jon

Schizoid Impressions

Well the weekend is here, and seeing as I am finally getting a chance to stay in the city this weekend, I can try out some new games. However, my cousin, who doesn't play games not named Magic: the Gathering, is also in town, which may dampen my efforts somewhat. Not that that's all a bad thing.

I did talk him into playing the Schizoid XBLA demo with me though. Schizoid is billed as a simple coop game in which a team of two ships, orange and blue, team together to fight hordes of alien monsters. The twist is that unlike other monster slaughtering games, there are no weapons. Ships can merely ram into one another. The orange ship pwns all the orange monsters, but gets pwned by the blue monsters, while the blue ship pwns the blue monsters, but rolls to the orange monsters. Pretty simple stuff.

Anyways, the game has something like 136 levels. We had a pretty good time playing the XBLA demo, but not good enough to make me want to slap down the money for the full game. Schizoid is overall a pretty intense experience, if the last few levels of the demo were any indication. There are tons of mobs all over the place, and it will take some pretty coordinated teamwork, but the game feels a little simpler than it could have been. The power-ups that I played around with were definitely fun, and I wish I could have seen some more. However, I wanted Schizoid to prove to me, beyond a reasonable doubt, that it a great, arcadey, coop experience, and it didn't quite get there.

If I had another dedicated player who wanted to really give this game their all with me, I would probably get it, but given that I don't have anyone living with me that would be willing to make the sacrifice, I suppose Left 4 Dead will have to do for now.

-Jon

Golden Joystick GotY Awards

Well, I started taking my blog seriously a little too late to post during most of the GotY awards earlier this year for 2008, but I can use the Golden Joystick GotY awards as a proxy for those, I suppose. The awards are supposed to be awarded to outstanding games released between May 22, 2008 and May 22, 2009. I say "supposed to" because some of the chronology in here is a little messed up, and some of the games that shouldn't be on the ballot are. Some games that should definitely be in more categories, like Braid, also are suspiciously absent from some categories.

Anyways, I'll go through my ballot (pictured at right) and talk about my decision. I know, in fact, I hope, that some of you vehemently disagree with my position. It is, after all, inevitable, but also fosters creative and enlightening debate. With that said, on to the awards!

Family Game of the Year - Free Realms: This one was one of my easier decisions. While World of Goo was certainly a tempting pick, I couldn't get past how different a game like Free Realms is from the average MMO, and how much potential it has to change our perceptions of MMO games. From beginning to end, it is designed to be a safe and fun place for the entire family. Players of all ages can get into the game, and it is simply a phenomenal game.

Handheld Game of the Year - Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars: I didn't get to play many of the games that were up for this award. While I liked Pokemon Platinum and Chrono Trigger, neither of these titles really added substantially to gaming. Rhythm Heaven was probably an excellent alternate choice, but I didn't have a chance to play the game. However, GTA Chinatown Wars re-examined the original GTA games and reworked them to be much more entertaining, intuitive and exciting. I really enjoyed the time that I spent playing this game.

Mobile Game of the Year - Bejeweled 2: This was definitely the category that I am least familiar with, but Bejeweled has really taken hold in casual gaming and my bosses (for whatever reason) really love it. I am not as big of a fan, but I certainly cannot deny how popular this game is. I didn't feel bad voting for it because there was nothing else that really stood out to me.

Multiplayer Game of the Year - Left 4 Dead: This decision, for me, was a complete layup. No game has defined multiplayer gaming so much this year as Left 4 Dead. A year ago, I would have told you that competitive multiplayer, much as I might not like it, was the preferred choice for the vast majority of gamers. L4D was perhaps the single most important game in the shift towards co-operative play that has occurred in the last year, and has completely changed the way that at least I view multiplayer gaming. While I can't say that most players now prefer co-op play, we've definitely at least moved in that direction. The game is also an absolute blast to play, which always helps for these sorts of things.

Nintendo Game of the Year - Okami: Again, another category that I am unfamiliar with, but this is one where I felt Okami was simply the best option. The second best option on the ballot, if it had been there, would have been Mario Kart Wii, but despite coming out a week or so after Okami, it wasn't. Decision made. Sorry Mario. Awkwardly enough, neither should have been on the ballot. The other game I was thinking of, Wii Fit is MIA. It has certainly sold well enough to be here, and unlike Okami or SMK Wii, released during the correct timeframe. Does GJ really think it isn't a game?

The One to Watch - Diablo III: I'm sure Diablo III in this spot will be one of my more controversial picks, but I am definitely an ARPG kind of guy, and really enjoyed Diablo II and D2X. More than that, the game looks and seems to play great. It is definitely the game that I am most looking forward to, though some upcoming MMO's like Global Agenda, the new Star Wars MMO, and other games are certainly outstanding nominees.

Online/PC Game of the Year - World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King: I picked the World of Warcraft Expansion in this slot due to both its popularity and the quality of the game as delivered. WoW, to me, is clearly the best MMORPG out there, and is certainly deserving of the online award. For the PC, the biggest contenders in my book were WoW, Braid, Fallout 3, L4D, and perhaps Warhammer 40K DoW II and Empire: Total War (they probably aren't, but I am a big fan of both games). WoW was simply a quintessentially PC game that continues to define gaming and online play with every release.

Playstation Game of the Year - Metal Gear Solid 4 Sons of the Patriots: Another category I wish I was more familiar with, but MGS4 seems to be a hot pick for GotY overall and certainly looked outstanding to me. I wish I owned a Playstation, but don't, and this was the only release this year that really made me want to buy one. Positive word of mouth was probably the biggest reason for this selection.

Publisher of the Year - Rockstar Games: This decision was easy because this studio was responsible for not one but two award-winning games this year. Although I found the car controls and framerate issues in GTA IV annoying enough that I didn't really want to give it any general GotY awards, I certainly don't feel justified in denying this award to the fine folks at Rockstar Games.

Retailer of the Year - Valve (Steam): No single retail outlet has had as dramatic an impact on game sales this year as Valve's Steam Client. Steam has brought games back from the dead, spurred game sales, and become a one-stop-shop for all varieties of PC games. In addition some games only work through Steam, making it tough to discount this platform as the most important game deployment and distribution platform since Xbox Live and Apple's online store.

Soundtrack of the Year - Braid & Burnout Paradise: This is not something I'm really concerned with, but Burnout Paradise has a fantastic soundtrack. My first choice for this award was Braid (and I did write in to GJ over it), but I certainly don't feel bad about picking Burnout Paradise here either.

UK Developer of the Year - Criterion: The quickest connections that I made here were Rockstar North to GTA IV and Criterion to Burnout Paradise. There was no Lionhead Studios (Fable II) option. Given that restriction, I simply feel that Burnout Paradise was the better game for me. Although GTA IV certainly has an immersive and well-developed world from beginning to end, great foot controls, and an outstanding story and cast of characters, framerate issues and awkward car handling (am I faulting a game for being too realistic? Yes.) really detracted from my enjoyment of the game. While the storyline and shooting controls were good enough to get me to finish the game (this is a huge compliment, I almost never finish games unless I really enjoy them), I really wished that the car controls and graphics were a little bit more appealing to me. While Burnout Paradise was a huge step forward from Burnout Revenge, I couldn't say the same about the transition from San Andreas (one of the best games I have ever played) to Grand Theft Auto IV. Needless to say, I have a great deal of respect for both of these studios.

The Ultimate Game of the Year - Left 4 Dead: This decision was really tough. I feel like if I had played MGS4 I might have a different pick here. To me, it came down to Left 4 Dead, WotLK, Braid (which wasn't an option, sadly), Burnout Paradise, and Warhammer 40K DoW II (again, a personal favorite that probably shouldn't win). Of these, I simply felt that L4D was the most complete and revolutionary gaming experience here. It was certainly a tough decision.

Xbox Game of the Year (why is this here and not with all of the other system awards?) - Braid: Sorry Call of Duty fans, Braid was simply the best 10 hours of game that I played all year. While it was tough to pick Braid as an overall Game of the Year since it was so short, I certainly didn't feel bad about picking it in a more narrow category.

Whew! That was a long one!

-Jon

Left 4 Dead Player Count Over Time

This ties back into two of my recent posts on Games on Sale and Today Only Left 4 Dead ON SALE. QforQ, a community manager over at GamerDNA, a neat website that tracks your gaming interests, recently released an image that tracked the "engagement level" of L4D's players on GamerDNA.

This image is pretty interesting to me because it shows the magnitude of the impact that a sale, free to play weekend, and/or holidays can have on a game's sales.

I would be hesitant to take this graph at face value, however. I'm not sure how these numbers are calculated, but GamerDNA has certainly been growing fairly rapidly in the last few months, which could have affected these results. In addition I would assume that more people have been linking their Steam accounts to Gamer DNA, which could also be affecting things.

However, the conclusion that I do feel comfortable drawing is that free weekends, new content, and limited-time price reductions on games do significantly drive game sales. I also feel safe saying that I am really looking forward to seeing more of these charts in the future.

Thanks GamerDNA!

-Jon

Defense Grid: The Awakening Review

Defense Grid: The Awakening Review
Innovation: 5/10
Mastery: 9/10
Greatness: 7/10

Tower Defense is a simple game system that is casual-friendly and can be quite advanced when you get down to it. I've been playing Tower Defense games since the Warcraft III days, and they are one of the best time-wasters I know of. Widely available on websites such as Kongregate and Newgrounds, there are literally hundreds of different Tower Defense games out there, which for the most part have their own special game elements to them. Plants vs. Zombies, PopCap's newest game, is an interesting take on the genre. However, if you are looking for the "best of breed" Tower Defense game, look no further than Hidden Path Entertainment's Defense Grid: The Awakening.

I purchased Defense Grid last weekend on Steam for a paltry sum of $5 (It's still on sale for $5, this week only) after its graphics piqued my interest, I read a few reviews, and played through the game's demo on Steam.

Like many other Tower Defense games, in Defense Grid you are given the task of deploying towers along a path to protect an area from an unending assault of mindless mobs. While most TD games allow you to either place towers in predetermined areas out of the mob's path or allow you to create your own path for the mobs within a certain area, Tower Defense features both types of gameplay. You have a variety of towers (10, with three levels each to be precise) with which to inflict punishment on the baddies, and each has its own strategic purpose. Most enemies (particularly as the game goes on) have resistances, immunities, or special aspects that make them resistant to certain damage types.

Defense Grid starts out pretty easy, but ramps up the difficulty significantly by the end of the game. In addition, since you can receive bronze, silver, and gold medals based on your performance in each level, there is a fair amount of replay value for most levels. In addition, you can increase the speed of the game at any time by holding down the F key, which is great for figuring out a level quickly or fast-forwarding through the time between waves. Lastly, the game saves your progress for you in the middle of levels, allowing you to load previously saved progress. This is something that is pretty unique for the genre and definitely a welcome addition if you don't have the time to play through some of the later levels several times over.

Although the balance of the various towers and the monster variety make this game stand out, it is also Defense Grid's cores system that makes this game the best Tower Defense game out there. In most TD games out there, monsters begin on one side of the screen and make their way to the other side. In Defense Grid however, monsters begin at point A, move to the power generator where the cores are stored, pick up cores and either return to point A or advance to another point B. If you kill them while they are returning cores, the cores will slowly waft their way back over to the generator. However, if all of the cores are gone from the generator, mobs will be able to pick up the cores which are making their way back, which significantly increases the pace of the game at some points, and acts as another factor in your building decisions, since it is no longer always best to build at the points along the path that mobs will pass the most en route to their final destination. While this sounds pretty elementary, in the later levels of the game this delivers a true challenge to the game, and significantly increases the intensity and exhilaration that the game provides, while somewhat helping with the game's immersion factor (something lacking in nearly all TD games).

Defense Grid isn't terribly innovative, but completely master's the Tower Defense mini-genre, and is worth the purchase for any fan of Tower Defense games out there. In short, if you are looking for the current definitive Tower Defense experience, look no further than Defense Grid: The Awakening.

-Jon